Friday News And Views

Cielo's new "Overlander"

NAHBS: 

This weekend marks the NAHBS opening in Denver, Colorado. Likely some fancy-pants, outlandishly priced rig will win the "Best of Show" award, and similar rigs will take home the other traditional prizes at NAHBS, but this Cielo offering would be my pick.

Dubbed the "Overlander", you could easily say this is a high-brow steel Fargo of the Gen I variety. Cielo says" Informed by our love of gravel adventures, back country exploration, bike packing, long road tours, and urban commuting, the Overlander is constructed with the same attention to detail and elegance that is the hallmark of every Chris King product."

It isn't suspension corrected, and the fork was specially constructed for this bike. It accepts mini-top racks, low rider mounts, and even has water bottle braze ons- one on the outside of each fork leg. The bike accepts rear racks, fenders, and has a full compliment of water bottle braze ons as well. 

I like the color combo here!

Finally, Cielo also installed a swinger drop out for single speed and IGH compatibility. See that Salsa Cycles? The Fargo sorely needs this added! 

While Cielo shows it here with Jones bars and some flat bar or another, I would drop bar this bike and if it handled as well or better than my Gen I Fargo? Well, I'd probably let that old Fargo go because the one thing that bike misses is the versatility of a swinging drop out.

And I gotta say, that reddish-orange hue is killer! Love the white tire look too, but in practice, white tires don't tend to be the best quality tires for what I'd be doing.

Anyway, all that to show that adventure/gravel bikes are definitely a theme for NAHBS this year. Glad to see that too. Now- I wonder if Cielo is going to send one of these down Tour Divide? Might be a good marketing move there.

Ardennes Plus

Also getting introduced at NAHBS will be the HED Wheels Ardennes Plus that I reviewed recently here and here on Gravel Grinder News. The wheels will be getting a new set of tires soon, and then I will be doing a longer term update on them at some point this summer.

It will be interesting to see and read about the details on these wheels from other cycling media and fans at NAHBS. I think they are an interesting product and a different take on what gravel grinding wheels should be. But you never know- maybe I have that all wrong, and the fall out from the "official launch" will tell me one way or the other.

Frostbike:

While NAHBS might be fun, and it is located closer to me than ever this year, I can't go when Frostbike is going on. This is the dealer only show by bicycle parts supplier giant, Quality Bicycle Products, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. But first-

I  have an appointment to see Salsa Cycles, in regards to the shop  where I work being a dealer, (that I won't be talking about here or anywhere for awhile, I suppose), and then its on to the "annual" shindig at Mike's Bikes in Northfield, Minnesota. It should be a scene. Usually there are three things. Okay.....four! Good friends, beer, Greek pizza, and indoor bicycle riding shenanigans.  It's more fun than a grown man should be allowed to have, however you slice it, and I look forward to it every year.

Alrighty then. I have a canned Trans Iowa post for tomorrow loaded with info, so look for that. Otherwise, get outside, have some fun, and we'll see ya soon!

Friday News And Views

Cielo's new "Overlander"

NAHBS: 

This weekend marks the NAHBS opening in Denver, Colorado. Likely some fancy-pants, outlandishly priced rig will win the "Best of Show" award, and similar rigs will take home the other traditional prizes at NAHBS, but this Cielo offering would be my pick.

Dubbed the "Overlander", you could easily say this is a high-brow steel Fargo of the Gen I variety. Cielo says" Informed by our love of gravel adventures, back country exploration, bike packing, long road tours, and urban commuting, the Overlander is constructed with the same attention to detail and elegance that is the hallmark of every Chris King product."

It isn't suspension corrected, and the fork was specially constructed for this bike. It accepts mini-top racks, low rider mounts, and even has water bottle braze ons- one on the outside of each fork leg. The bike accepts rear racks, fenders, and has a full compliment of water bottle braze ons as well. 

I like the color combo here!

Finally, Cielo also installed a swinger drop out for single speed and IGH compatibility. See that Salsa Cycles? The Fargo sorely needs this added! 

While Cielo shows it here with Jones bars and some flat bar or another, I would drop bar this bike and if it handled as well or better than my Gen I Fargo? Well, I'd probably let that old Fargo go because the one thing that bike misses is the versatility of a swinging drop out.

And I gotta say, that reddish-orange hue is killer! Love the white tire look too, but in practice, white tires don't tend to be the best quality tires for what I'd be doing.

Anyway, all that to show that adventure/gravel bikes are definitely a theme for NAHBS this year. Glad to see that too. Now- I wonder if Cielo is going to send one of these down Tour Divide? Might be a good marketing move there.

Ardennes Plus

Also getting introduced at NAHBS will be the HED Wheels Ardennes Plus that I reviewed recently here and here on Gravel Grinder News. The wheels will be getting a new set of tires soon, and then I will be doing a longer term update on them at some point this summer.

It will be interesting to see and read about the details on these wheels from other cycling media and fans at NAHBS. I think they are an interesting product and a different take on what gravel grinding wheels should be. But you never know- maybe I have that all wrong, and the fall out from the "official launch" will tell me one way or the other.

Frostbike:

While NAHBS might be fun, and it is located closer to me than ever this year, I can't go when Frostbike is going on. This is the dealer only show by bicycle parts supplier giant, Quality Bicycle Products, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. But first-

I  have an appointment to see Salsa Cycles, in regards to the shop  where I work being a dealer, (that I won't be talking about here or anywhere for awhile, I suppose), and then its on to the "annual" shindig at Mike's Bikes in Northfield, Minnesota. It should be a scene. Usually there are three things. Okay.....four! Good friends, beer, Greek pizza, and indoor bicycle riding shenanigans.  It's more fun than a grown man should be allowed to have, however you slice it, and I look forward to it every year.

Alrighty then. I have a canned Trans Iowa post for tomorrow loaded with info, so look for that. Otherwise, get outside, have some fun, and we'll see ya soon!

Friday News And Views

It's A Great Big Gravelly World! I was out riding the other day and thinking about how much I miss just being able to take off for the day and ride endless miles of gravel. Hard to justify that now with test riding obligations and the web site management, and everything that goes with that.

It might be nice just to shut that all down and go ride for a whole day, no responsibilities to the other stuff. But then again, I know that stuff helps out an awful lot of people, and really, my desires to go off into a gravelly sunset are just selfish ambitions.

Still, ya gotta give in once in awhile and just go for a winger. I feel one coming on and I'll have to save it, because the Gravel World Championships are coming soon, and I will get 150 miles of the limestone goodness that day. Just a wee bit between now and then couldn't hurt though, could it?

 Summer Is Almost Over: The trees down the street are all orange already, leaves are falling, and the "Iowa Jungle" is showing signs of fading away. (Please let the insects know they can die already, okay!) The Cielo rig shown here will soon be going back to Oregon too. It's been a fun ride, and I like the bike a lot, but it is a different kind of 29"er for sure. More suited to wide open trails than our tight, twisty, turny Mid-Western style single track. Still, she is a beauty and a "gentleman's ride".

Speaking of summer being almost over, I better eat some more sweet corn before it's all gone. Grilled some up tonight too. If ya haven't grilled sweet corn, you don't know what yer missing!.

S

Steel Steamroller: The Origin 8 single speed build is almost done. I have to tweak out a few things, but this bike just feels like one you could run right over a small car with. I suppose the 120mm Reba Team fork just might have something to do with that feeling though! Big Specialized 2.4" Purgatory tires don't hurt either.

I'll be setting this up in various ways, so I won't be doing the "monster single speed" set up for long, but it'll be fun while that phase lasts.

Get out and savor the awesome weather whilst ya can. Soon we will be wishing it was 80 degrees and humid again! Ride yer bikes! Take some pics!

Friday News And Views

It's A Great Big Gravelly World! I was out riding the other day and thinking about how much I miss just being able to take off for the day and ride endless miles of gravel. Hard to justify that now with test riding obligations and the web site management, and everything that goes with that.

It might be nice just to shut that all down and go ride for a whole day, no responsibilities to the other stuff. But then again, I know that stuff helps out an awful lot of people, and really, my desires to go off into a gravelly sunset are just selfish ambitions.

Still, ya gotta give in once in awhile and just go for a winger. I feel one coming on and I'll have to save it, because the Gravel World Championships are coming soon, and I will get 150 miles of the limestone goodness that day. Just a wee bit between now and then couldn't hurt though, could it?

 Summer Is Almost Over: The trees down the street are all orange already, leaves are falling, and the "Iowa Jungle" is showing signs of fading away. (Please let the insects know they can die already, okay!) The Cielo rig shown here will soon be going back to Oregon too. It's been a fun ride, and I like the bike a lot, but it is a different kind of 29"er for sure. More suited to wide open trails than our tight, twisty, turny Mid-Western style single track. Still, she is a beauty and a "gentleman's ride".

Speaking of summer being almost over, I better eat some more sweet corn before it's all gone. Grilled some up tonight too. If ya haven't grilled sweet corn, you don't know what yer missing!.

S

Steel Steamroller: The Origin 8 single speed build is almost done. I have to tweak out a few things, but this bike just feels like one you could run right over a small car with. I suppose the 120mm Reba Team fork just might have something to do with that feeling though! Big Specialized 2.4" Purgatory tires don't hurt either.

I'll be setting this up in various ways, so I won't be doing the "monster single speed" set up for long, but it'll be fun while that phase lasts.

Get out and savor the awesome weather whilst ya can. Soon we will be wishing it was 80 degrees and humid again! Ride yer bikes! Take some pics!

Steamed Singletrack

The weekend was a good one. Finally, I was able to dodge the rain drops and ride some single track. The Camp was dried out from the previous days of dry weather, so I hit up the South side and took the Big Mama with me for the ride. It was a good thing I took the full suspension goodness of the Big Mama too, because the Camp is rough! Rougher than I remember it being since we've been riding back there.

I didn't check in with the atmospherical authorities before leaving, but according to my arms and hands, which the sweat was running off of like a water faucet was up my sleeve, I'd say it was pretty darn humid. That meant that the air was plenty steamy under the canopy of the woods. It's definitely summer! Better than winter, so I am not complaining.

Sunday I got out again, but since we had rain over night, I hit up Cedar Bend this time on the Cielo 29"er. The air wasn't quite as steamy as Saturday, but the humidity wasn't gone, just not as brutal. The corn on the far side of Cedar Bend must be nine feet tall, by the way!

There is something pretty weird going on with this bike. I was sent a size, (19.5"), that should fit me perfectly, if you had a typical, mass produced, big name 29'er. But this isn't a typical bike at all. First of all, it has a lot of classic cues, the more level top tube, the seat stay arrangement, and the frame tubing sizes are all classic mtb. The deal that strikes me as weird though is the top tube length. It is 25.3" long! I usually go for an inch shorter top tube than this.

Okay, the bike fits me, albeit I am "stretched" more, not a bad thing at all. The bike handles just peachy this way, and that is what I find weird. It shouldn't handle well for me. It should feel like a big truck. It doesn't.

So now I'm full of questions.

That's a good thing. I think it's always good to learn and look at things outside your "box"

Steamed Singletrack

The weekend was a good one. Finally, I was able to dodge the rain drops and ride some single track. The Camp was dried out from the previous days of dry weather, so I hit up the South side and took the Big Mama with me for the ride. It was a good thing I took the full suspension goodness of the Big Mama too, because the Camp is rough! Rougher than I remember it being since we've been riding back there.

I didn't check in with the atmospherical authorities before leaving, but according to my arms and hands, which the sweat was running off of like a water faucet was up my sleeve, I'd say it was pretty darn humid. That meant that the air was plenty steamy under the canopy of the woods. It's definitely summer! Better than winter, so I am not complaining.

Sunday I got out again, but since we had rain over night, I hit up Cedar Bend this time on the Cielo 29"er. The air wasn't quite as steamy as Saturday, but the humidity wasn't gone, just not as brutal. The corn on the far side of Cedar Bend must be nine feet tall, by the way!

There is something pretty weird going on with this bike. I was sent a size, (19.5"), that should fit me perfectly, if you had a typical, mass produced, big name 29'er. But this isn't a typical bike at all. First of all, it has a lot of classic cues, the more level top tube, the seat stay arrangement, and the frame tubing sizes are all classic mtb. The deal that strikes me as weird though is the top tube length. It is 25.3" long! I usually go for an inch shorter top tube than this.

Okay, the bike fits me, albeit I am "stretched" more, not a bad thing at all. The bike handles just peachy this way, and that is what I find weird. It shouldn't handle well for me. It should feel like a big truck. It doesn't.

So now I'm full of questions.

That's a good thing. I think it's always good to learn and look at things outside your "box"

Friday News And Views

<===Buzzy!

Chris King hubs: Love em or hate em, they are definitely unique. I like 'em. They are buzzy, come in cool colors, and are dead reliable, at least for me. Yeah.......they are spendy!  But you'll have them a long time, if you want to,  so they seem worth it to my mind.

Anyway, I bring this up because the Cielo 29"er I have here on test for Twenty Nine Inches has them onboard. I haven't ever really seen the gold anodized stuff before, but man! Does that color glow! Makes me want to set up a bike with gold stuff like this one now.

That's the trouble when you are an anodized parts freak like me. I just love anything other than black anodized parts which are so......common! It gets tiring seeing all that black anodized stuff. Even silver is better, at least to my mind. I should talk though! I own one set of Chris King hubs and guess what color they are? Yup! Black! Boring ol' me!

 Here's something else that's gold- flowers! Have you noticed the wild flowers are popping like crazy right now? I have and it is amazing here in the Mid-west. One of my favorite things is to ride some gravel and see the wild flowers, which reminds me, next weekend is the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational Think you might be interested in this? Are you planning on showing up? Then hit that link and it'll take you to the link to print out directions for the ride. I'll be up there a week from today in the evening to help get things kicked off. Hope to see you there.

 <===The gears are turning......


I have a plan for the bike I'll be riding next weekend too. It'll be somewhat unusual, that's for certain. Hopefully I can get it together for a test ride this weekend. If that doesn't pan out, I'll probably show up on the Fargo like last year. Either way, I'll be ready with a bicycle, but maybe not so ready with my body! I've been not having any luck getting out on the gravel roads of late, and long rides......ha!

Well, let's just say that the "death" part of the GTDRI may be more literal in terms of describing my riding than usual! Hopefully I'll be okay, but ya never know.

Let's hope we all can get out there and enjoy some cycling this weekend!

Friday News And Views

<===Buzzy!

Chris King hubs: Love em or hate em, they are definitely unique. I like 'em. They are buzzy, come in cool colors, and are dead reliable, at least for me. Yeah.......they are spendy!  But you'll have them a long time, if you want to,  so they seem worth it to my mind.

Anyway, I bring this up because the Cielo 29"er I have here on test for Twenty Nine Inches has them onboard. I haven't ever really seen the gold anodized stuff before, but man! Does that color glow! Makes me want to set up a bike with gold stuff like this one now.

That's the trouble when you are an anodized parts freak like me. I just love anything other than black anodized parts which are so......common! It gets tiring seeing all that black anodized stuff. Even silver is better, at least to my mind. I should talk though! I own one set of Chris King hubs and guess what color they are? Yup! Black! Boring ol' me!

 Here's something else that's gold- flowers! Have you noticed the wild flowers are popping like crazy right now? I have and it is amazing here in the Mid-west. One of my favorite things is to ride some gravel and see the wild flowers, which reminds me, next weekend is the Guitar Ted Death Ride Invitational Think you might be interested in this? Are you planning on showing up? Then hit that link and it'll take you to the link to print out directions for the ride. I'll be up there a week from today in the evening to help get things kicked off. Hope to see you there.

 <===The gears are turning......


I have a plan for the bike I'll be riding next weekend too. It'll be somewhat unusual, that's for certain. Hopefully I can get it together for a test ride this weekend. If that doesn't pan out, I'll probably show up on the Fargo like last year. Either way, I'll be ready with a bicycle, but maybe not so ready with my body! I've been not having any luck getting out on the gravel roads of late, and long rides......ha!

Well, let's just say that the "death" part of the GTDRI may be more literal in terms of describing my riding than usual! Hopefully I'll be okay, but ya never know.

Let's hope we all can get out there and enjoy some cycling this weekend!

Okay, That's About Enough Of That!

<===The corner of Baltimore and 2nd on Wednesday, 8:30am.

Yeah.........it can stop anytime now! The rain, that is. We received 5 inches in less than 24 hours, and in probably less than a few hours, truth be known, on top of an already saturated water table. No where for the water to go but where we don't want it. Basements, roadways, etcetera, were all flooded out on Wednesday morning here. Places that never even saw a drop of water in the basement during the record floods of  '08 were getting flooded. Weird!

So you can imagine how our off road trails are about now! ha!

It rained until about 9:30am, and sputtered awhile after that. The waters subsided to a degree, but even at 6:00pm, you could see water flowing out of cracks in the street yet!  Thankfully we are scheduled for three days of drying out, although I believe I think we need about three weeks of drying out to really do the trick.

And for much of the day, we had the lovely experience of having the percentage of humidity way above the actual temperature, which meant that you were sweating bullets standing still. Just the thing you need for frazzled nerves and grumpy people. To say it was a bogus day would be putting it mildly. That said, there were some extremely bright, bright spots to this otherwise not so great day.

First off, I found out that XXC Mag has accepted my submission for an introductory piece to open up a special issue coming out soon. This is pretty humbling and awesome. I am happy to be a small part of this (what I think will be) smash hit. It's gonna be very cool! More on that later. 

Then I got a text message from a co-worker that another test rig for Twenty Nine Inches came in. It is a Cielo, which is Chris King's handmade bicycle marque. many folks don't realize this, but Chris King was a frame builder first. He didn't like the headsets available back in the late 70's, so he made his own and, well.......the rest is history, as they say. It got to where Chris couldn't keep up with the frame building side of it, so he started Chris King Precision Components. Just within the last few years, Chris started back in making road and cyclo-cross bikes again. The 29"er thing happened by accident, kind of. The rest of that story will be told on TNI. For now I'll just say that by popular request, we have this 29"er to check out for a short time. It's a pretty sweet machine, so I can't wait to get out on it.........if it'd ever stop raining!

Oh yeah! And I got a sneak peek of the following...........

 Have a great Thursday!

Okay, That's About Enough Of That!

<===The corner of Baltimore and 2nd on Wednesday, 8:30am.

Yeah.........it can stop anytime now! The rain, that is. We received 5 inches in less than 24 hours, and in probably less than a few hours, truth be known, on top of an already saturated water table. No where for the water to go but where we don't want it. Basements, roadways, etcetera, were all flooded out on Wednesday morning here. Places that never even saw a drop of water in the basement during the record floods of  '08 were getting flooded. Weird!

So you can imagine how our off road trails are about now! ha!

It rained until about 9:30am, and sputtered awhile after that. The waters subsided to a degree, but even at 6:00pm, you could see water flowing out of cracks in the street yet!  Thankfully we are scheduled for three days of drying out, although I believe I think we need about three weeks of drying out to really do the trick.

And for much of the day, we had the lovely experience of having the percentage of humidity way above the actual temperature, which meant that you were sweating bullets standing still. Just the thing you need for frazzled nerves and grumpy people. To say it was a bogus day would be putting it mildly. That said, there were some extremely bright, bright spots to this otherwise not so great day.

First off, I found out that XXC Mag has accepted my submission for an introductory piece to open up a special issue coming out soon. This is pretty humbling and awesome. I am happy to be a small part of this (what I think will be) smash hit. It's gonna be very cool! More on that later. 

Then I got a text message from a co-worker that another test rig for Twenty Nine Inches came in. It is a Cielo, which is Chris King's handmade bicycle marque. many folks don't realize this, but Chris King was a frame builder first. He didn't like the headsets available back in the late 70's, so he made his own and, well.......the rest is history, as they say. It got to where Chris couldn't keep up with the frame building side of it, so he started Chris King Precision Components. Just within the last few years, Chris started back in making road and cyclo-cross bikes again. The 29"er thing happened by accident, kind of. The rest of that story will be told on TNI. For now I'll just say that by popular request, we have this 29"er to check out for a short time. It's a pretty sweet machine, so I can't wait to get out on it.........if it'd ever stop raining!

Oh yeah! And I got a sneak peek of the following...........

 Have a great Thursday!